Stranger Things couldn't have had a happy ending without the sacrifice of one key character, with the show's creators describing it as a "selfless" and "heroic" act. If you still haven't watched the last episode of the Netflix show you might want to stop reading, as we're going to be discussing spoilers here!
In the final moments of Stranger Things (you can read all about it in our Stranger Things season 5 finale ending explained guide), when the Upside Down is about to be destroyed thanks to the gang's plan, Eleven makes the decision that has been hanging over her head during the two-hour episode – she decides to sacrifice herself to prevent her blood to be used to create more superpowered children who will be tortured and abused like she was.
However, after a D&D game over a year after the events, Mike provides a different version – one in which a barely-alive Kali used her psychokinetic abilities to fake Eleven's death, allowing her sister to escape and finally live a life for herself. A brief scene shows Eleven hiking in some beautiful mountains in Iceland, though it's unclear if this is Mike's imagination or the real world.
That ambiguity was key for the Duffer Brothers, who in a recent interview with Variety revealed why they decided to end Eleven's story in this way. "Eleven represents, in a lot of ways, the magic of childhood," Ross Duffer said.
"And we knew for our kids to be able to grow up, the magic had leave Hawkins. There was never a version that we had written where it was Eleven down in that basement. It was never going to be that simple and that easy. It was finding a way to come up with an ending where it was not that simple, but also bittersweet, and that there was hope there," he said.
"From a character point of view, not a thematic point of view, we had so many debates in the writers’ room about what we were going to do with Eleven," added Matt Duffer. "And then we tried to actually express everything we were talking about in the room on the screen. So Hopper's speech to Eleven is vocalizing what a lot of people in the room were saying. And then what Kali was saying to her was vocalizing the other side of the argument.
"The question was, which of those choices is Eleven going to choose? And if you, like Mike and the others, choose to believe that she is alive somewhere, then she picked something in the middle. But either way, it's a completely selfless act and heroic act on Eleven’s part. I mean, you've seen all those pregnant women, and how many children are going to be born, potentially, using her blood, how the cycle will exist, and how many other kids will go through what she went through. And she's making damn sure that that never happens again."
For more, check out our Stranger Things season 5 finale review, and see our lists for the best Netflix shows.
